Improvement in th read-waxers for sewing-machines



UNITED STATES l PATENT OFFICE.

GORDON MGKAY, OE BOSTON, AND LYMAN R. BLAKE, OF QUINOY, ASSIG NORS TO GORDON MCKAY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN THREAD-WAXERS FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,077, dated June 7, 1864.

To all whom it lmay concern;

` Beit known that we, GoRDoN McKAv, of Boston, in the county ot' Suti'olk and State of Massachusetts, and LYMAN R. BLAKE, of Quincy, in the county of Norfolk and `State aforesaid, have invented certain Improvements in Devices for Stripping Superiiuous Wax from Thread 5. and Vwe do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms partof this specification, is a description of our invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it. v

In the preparation of thread for use by those sewing-machines known as waxed-thread machilies;7 which employ acrochet-needle, thegeneral waxingof the thread is imperfect, as is well known, caused by imperfection of the device used in waxing, termed the strippen which prior to our invention has been made ot' material which is quite compressible and soft, being generally rubber, leather, or cloth. Such strippers have been made by perforating the compressible material with a hole for the passage of the thread; or a slit has been cut in the material, through which the thread has been made to pass, and this slitformation has been most used, because more easily threaded than the hole through the material. The compressible material has also been putin the shape of a tube, through which the thread has been drawn, and this and the forms before men-V tioned have had appliances connected therewith by which the material of the stripper has been compressed upon the thread as the stripping material Wore away by the friction consequent upon the passage of the thread and wax. With these strippers knots and enlargements of the thread were drawn through the thread-passage therein by compressing the material ofthe stripper, and in their movement weariugawayandenlargingthepassage. When the material was too tightly compressed upon the thread it for a time removed too much wax therefrom. VVeai-ing away of the material of the stripper enlarged the hole. Then for a short time it allowed the proper amount of wax to pass the stripper and to remain upon the thread butthe continued passage ofthe thread soon increased the aperture in the stripper, so

that too much wax remained upon the thread, and as the aperture generally wore oblong more wax was left on one surface or side of the thread I than on theother. As theuniformly-good performance of waxed -thread sewingmachines cannot be obtained without uniformity in the waxing ofthe thread'used, and as the quality ofthe sewing accomplished depends upon there, being a sufficiency ot' Wax left upon the'thread, the utility of a device which, while made of a material not practicabl y compressible, not soft and subject to wear, likesubstances before named, and which will at the same time admit the passage of knots and enlargements in the thread, becomes apparent. We have found by experiment that thread can only be perfectly waxed by drawing it through a round hole or tube of a size suited or gaged to the diameter ofthe thread, and made in hard incompressible 0materialsuch as steel or iron, for example;

but enlargements and knots in the thread cannot be drawn through a hole in such material remained unbroken during the passage ot' an enlargement in the thread, but was stretched. 1n our stripper the boundary of the threatpassa-ge separates into parts, the position ot' which. or of some of which, is changed, but not their form or size.

Our invention consists in so constructing a stripper made of hard incompressible material as to permit the separation into parts of the boundary of the stripping hole or tube, while at thev same time the normal diameter of the said hole ortube cannot be lessened by pressing the parts which form its boundary in upon r toward the center of the hole; also, in so constructing such a stripper that it shall automatically permit passage of enlargements in the thread; also, in such a construction ofsuch a stripper as will cause its parts to automatically assume their normal position after passage of an enlargement in the thread.

The drawing illustrates in longitudinal vertical section a metallic device vembodyin g our invention.

An arm, a, is pivoted to a frame, b, which frame or bed may be of any convenient size or form. rlhe arrangement of et and b with reference to each other is such that there are faces of each, c and d, which come into contact with each other, and cis maintained in contact with d by the pull ot' spring c. In thejoiut formed by contact ofthe faces c and d are made one or more holes, half ot' each being formed in the material of a, and of b, said holes being ot' any size suitable to the size ot' the thread to be waxed, and being made in the general direction in which the thread is drawn through the instrument. The drawing shows the arm a in black lines in its normal position, in which it operates while stripping the superfluous wax from the thread, and the red lines show the position which the arm a assumes when a knot or other enlargement ot' the thread is drawn up to, through, and past the stripper, thus allowing the knots to pass freely through the device without attention on the part of the opcrator, while the arm a will return automatically to its normal position and to its stripping lunction as soon as the enlargement has fairly passed b'eyond the device. Aliai1dle,f,\vhich l'orrns part of a., affords a convenient means for lifting a by hand to the position shown in red lines whenever it becomes necessary to introduce the end ot' a thread between the faces o and d. The strength ot' the spring e must be suflcient to keep the arm a from swinging'outward under the passage ot' thread ot' uniform size, but must not be so stili' as to cause the thread to break before allowing the arm a to yield to pass a knot or. other enlargement.

Various modlicationsof'the device described may be made without departure from our iuvention. For instance, the device shown in thcdrawing might be reversed so that it would not operate automatically. It could, however,

be operated by the attendant, who would de' press the leverj' upon the appearance of an enlargement, and then when this had been drawn through or past the stripper the operator would release the lever and allow it to close; or a plug ot' cylindrical or conical form might be made to till a cylindrical or conical hole, the plug being secured to the piece in which the hole is formed by a tlat spring, which would serve to keep the plug in its normal position in the hole and as an arm for it to swing outward upon. A suitable groove or grooves t'or the thread could be made in the joint between the plug and its container, halt-'ot' the groove in each. It will be obvious that the operation of this device, in automatic action', in passing obstructions through or pustit, and in returning to its normal condition in the act ot' stripping the wax t'rom the thread would be preciselysimilar to that ot' theconstruction shown in the drawing, which is the form we prefer.

We claim- A device for stripping supertluous wax from thread and for other analogous uses,-When arranged to operate substantially as described.

Executed by us this 26th day ot' January, A. D. 186i.

GORDON MOKAY. LYMAN R. BLAKE.

In presence ot- J. B. CROSBY, F. GoULD. 

